Kentucky Court Clerk Says He Is Willing To Die Rather Than Issue Marriage Licenses To Gay Couples

Earlier this year, Glenn Beck warned his listeners that there were at least 10,000 American pastors who were willing to die opposing marriage equality. Now a Kentucky court clerk has claimed that he’s willing to die defying the judicial system which has ordered him and other county clerks to comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling, or else.

The small group of clerks include Kim Davis, the Rowan County clerk I previously wrote about a couple of weeks ago. These clerks have demanded that Governor Beshear call a special session of the Kentucky Legislature, just to pass legislation which would allow them to continue discriminating against same-sex couples, and would certainly open up the state to an incredible legal battle. They have also proposed changing the marriage license forms so that clerks can issue them without a name issuing them, something the legislature also isn’t interested in spending their time on.

Since Governor Beshear has refused to ask the Kentucky Legislature to defy the Supreme Court or cater to the religious whims of these three clerks, they held a rally in Frankfort last weekend and more than 5,000 people showed up to demonstrate that bigotry was alive and well in the Bluegrass State. Then on Monday, Casey County Clerk Casey Davis made an appearance on West Virginia radio station to demand that he be allowed to discriminate, and that he was willing to die for his perceived right to be a dick to people based on his religious views.

Via Right Wing Watch:

“It’s a war on Christianity,” he said. “There is a travesty taking place with that Supreme Court ruling was completely unconstitutional, completely unconstitutional. They have no right to tell us, the state of Kentucky, that our law that was voted with what was 70 percent of the people that it was wrong, they had no right.”

An emotional Davis went on to claim that he may lose his life in defiance of marriage equality: “Our law says ‘one man and one woman’ and that is what I held my hand up and took an oath to and that is what I expected. If it takes it, I will go to jail over — if it takes my life, I will die for because I believe I owe that to the people that fought so I can have the freedom that I have, I owe that to them today, and you do, we all do. They fought and died so we could have this freedom and I’m going to fight and die for my kids and your kids can keep it.” (Source)

If you heard Lee Greenwood’s shitacular country song “God Bless The USA” in the last bit of that rant, you aren’t the only one. That whole rant just takes me back to the time when gay Americans had absolutely zero protections, and Ronald Reagan’s communications director Pat Buchanan claimed that AIDS was “nature’s revenge on gay men.” Remember those days? They weren’t exactly a “Morning In America” for people who weren’t white, heterosexual Christians at a time when the religious right began its rise to power in the Republican Party.

Here’s a novel concept for Casey County Clerk Casey Davis: do your job, or go find another one where following your religious beliefs doesn’t infringe on the constitutional rights of other people. If you seriously believe that issuing a marriage license to a same-sex couple will condemn you to eternal punishment, or even that you’re condoning what you think is a sin by signing a court document, then maybe having a government position isn’t for you.